Editions

Page /
100%
  1. Home
  2. Non-Fiction Books
  3. My Life in Houses
My Life in Houses

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9780099593973

  • Length: 272  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 17mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 192g

  • RRP: £9.99

My Life in Houses

‘I was born on 25th May, 1938, in the front bedroom of a house in Orton Road, a house on the outer edges of Raffles, a council estate. I was a lucky girl.’

So begins Margaret Forster’s journey through the houses she’s lived in, from that sparkling new council house, to her beloved London home of today. This is not a book about bricks and mortar though. This is a book about what houses are to us, the effect they have on the way we live our lives and the changing nature of our homes: from blacking grates and outside privies; to cities dominated by bedsits and lodgings; to the houses of today converted back into single dwellings. Finally, it is a gently insistent, personal inquiry into the meaning of home.

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9780099593973

  • Length: 272  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 17mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 192g

  • RRP: £9.99

Reviews

  • I was truly moved by Margaret Forster's ingeniously structured and beautifully written memoir... A really wonderful book

    Juliet Nicolson, Evening Standard BOOKS OF THE YEAR

  • A beautiful exploration of her life in relation to the homes she has made'

    Rachel Joyce, Observer BOOKS OF THE YEAR

  • Such a clever idea. It's a memoir sited in bricks and mortar... social and personal history spliced together

    Penelope Lively, Guardian BOOKS OF THE YEAR

  • Until its shocking, throat-catching end, this latest book is a deceptively simple trek evoking everywhere [Margaret Forster] has lived

    Melanie Reid, The Times

  • Reads like one of Forster's well-loved novels: full of sharp observation and gentle wit

    Bel Mooney, Daily Mail

  • In both books and homes, we find wry humour and a great deal of poignancy

    Sarah Franklin, Sunday Express

  • Like sitting down for tea with a highly intelligent woman and chatting, not so much about "a room of one's own" as "a home of one's own"... fascinating and touching

    Spectator

  • This is a lovely and touching evocation of what home means to one woman, and within this is a universality that many will connect with

    Shirley Whiteside, Herald

More from this Author

View all View all
View all View all

About the Author

Margaret Forster

Born in Carlisle, Margaret Forster was the author of many successful and acclaimed novels, including Have the Men Had Enough?, Lady's Maid, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Is There Anything You Want? , Keeping the World Away, Over and The Unknown Bridesmaid. She also wrote bestselling memoirs – Hidden Lives, Precious Lives and, most recently, My Life in Houses – and biographies. She was married to writer and journalist Hunter Davies and lived in London and the Lake District. She died in February 2016, just before her last novel, How to Measure a Cow, was published.

Margaret Forster

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies to make our website work. If you click 'Accept All’ we will use cookies to understand how you use our services and to show you personalised advertising and other content. You can change your cookie settings by clicking 'Manage Cookies'. For more information please see our Cookie Policy

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.